In the past, production of a ground meat product such as, for example, gyros, was accomplished by stacking several ground meat patties up, one on top of the other and thereafter, the remaining cylinder was cut with a knife to achieve the frustoconical tapered shape. To produce a frusto-conical shape as is traditionally required in gyros, the stacked, huge hamburger-like patties which are stacked up to form a meat cylinder are turned into a cone by means of a knife cutting the meat. Other methods that were used included stuffing and pumping the meat into a cylinder and thereafter a band saw could be applied to taper the meat to a desired shape of a tapered or frusto-conical cone. U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,822 issued to Kleptz shows meat being pumped into a cylinder to form a meat product of a predetermined shape. However, a frusto-conical shaped mold casing is not shown, nor is there any way of accomplishing this through modifying the structure without visualizing the invention as disclosed herein.
Thus, in all the known methods of making gyros prior to this time, a knife or other cutting instrument is necessary to achieve the frusto-conical shaped meat. Where a knife is used or, for that matter even a band saw, to perform the cutting operation for means of tapering, it is not only expensive and tedious but the end product is inconsistent.